January 29, 2009

OC Transpo Strike: winners and losers ... but mostly losers

The city botched it. Leave aside the merits of each side's argument and look at how they fought. The city misjudged the importance of work scheduling to the workers — was very possibly ignorant of the system's origins only 10 years ago. Just a few days in, Mayor Larry O'Brien made the fight with ATU 279 personal, calling out president André Cornellier and daring him to let the members vote on the city's last offer.

Practically every time he opened his mouth, O'Brien found a way to insult the strikers, particularly when he rather spectacularly said he hoped to "educate" them about the city's offer.

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Like it or not, Cornellier comes out of this a winner. Sure, practically everyone in Ottawa hates him, but he doesn't work for us — he works for 2,300 ATU 279 members and he just led them to a victory, even if it was in a defensive action and it came at great cost. Cornellier acted like a jerk, especially at the beginning of the strike, but it's hard to see a point where any different choices on his part could have let to a compromise with with a management negotiating team that declared that the key bargaining issue was, in fact, non-negotiable.

ATU international vice-president Randy Graham, an Ottawa guy, is a winner, too: he gets the victory and to come off as The Reasonable One in the transit union's leadership.

Their members ... I guess for them it's a wash... They elected a leader who seemed to rejoice in infuriating Ottawans, but now it's the ATU drivers who get to climb back on the buses and face the public. Here's hoping most of the riders see the pointlessness of abusing the men and women at the wheel, but I bet hardly any of them will have pleasant first days back.

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The real long-term losers are the people of Ottawa, especially those of us who saw in council's eagerness to build a $4.7-billion system of rail lines and busways that are rail-lines-to-be a vision of a city that would finally fight its way out of the 1980s. One that no longer thought that yet another subdivision upstream on the Rideau River was good planning. One that actually had begun to believe its own rhetoric about having people live more compact lives in a vibrant downtown and not building their lives (and neighbourhoods) around cars.

That's done now. Yes, drivers heading downtown from the burbs had a rough time sitting on the Queensway, but at least they got to work on school without having to go begging to their friends or relatives (or complete strangers) for help. The people who believed the city's guff about transit got it in the shorts, and they won't forget the betrayal.

Is there NO sense of urgency at OC Transpo? Another week before the busses are on the road? Somebody there is brain dead!

Hire a school bus! Charter! Work 24/7 on the needed inspections - but turn some wheels! DUH!

This latest strike, completely needless and preventable probably seals the fate of OC Transpo as a credible transport provider. Regardless of who the good guys & bad guys of the strike are, it is the responsibility of OC Transpo management to MANAGE! This means the city and the mayor as well.

I know that few in political Ottawa are capable of thought beyond the current month, BUT. Has no-one kept track of the trials and tribulations of the current project for transit infrastructure renewal? Has everyone forgotten that the current foolishness cost the previous mayor his job? Am I the only one who remembers that a federal minister had to intervene and stopp the flow of funds to the ill-considered version of the project? Does anyone in the city's administration actually believe that the federal and provincial governments (not to mention the local ratepayer) are going to shovel over the wheelbarrow loads of cash needed to complete the current overly-ambitious project to the current management?

At the very least a visible display of positive action is urgently needed.